Chaps, I'm looking for a 'cheap' supplier of acylic or plexi block in the UK or Europe - I need one about 80x70x200mm minimum. This is for my build parallel HEX and not as a potential projectile to ram up Static Lullaby's chocolate starfish. My build is kind of stuck without it at the moment. All help gratefully received!
lmao, good one Best thing I found was to go down the local industrial estate and hunt down plastics type people there. Instead of paying £100 odd per sheet of 10mm plexi, I paid a little over £60.
Now now guys, behave... I would suggest you apprach a local sign making company. You may even get a piece of such dimensions as an offcut.
I know one Dutch shop with 200mm thick plexiglas (even 250). With a bit of cutting you'll have some nice blocks. I'll link you directly, so that you won't need to learn Dutch (well maybe you will) bouwplastics.nl If you click "bereken prijs" you could calculate the price of the piece. (E4,18 for as far I've seen)
hey bud, I have a 2 peices of 60mm (l) x 55(w)mm x 40 (thick)mm plexiglas...if you are interested and I can let you know tomorrow what the Companys name is who do some awsome colour and are not to bad when it comes to price.
Thanks for your help guys! I phoned round a few companies from the applegate directory and got a price of £71.50 ex vat&p&p in the exact dimensions. Not bad considering some of the quotes I was getting! But, once I add machining costs, it's getting expensive. Here's the original design of my collector, with fittings. The smaller object is a manifold that I have already have - I got two made actually because my loop design was different at the concept stage. The loop has evolved to use the collector instead. It seems acrylic block in this kind of chunk is rare to get off the shelf, guess there's not much use for it except mad watercooling ideas . I found a cheap supplier for blocks a bit smaller, and you could make some awesome mods with these - ebay link. £11.90 for a piece 100x100x40 delivered. After seeing the smaller block, I reckon I could adapt my original design to use two smaller blocks and a tube. However, it may workout just as expensive if there is any extra machining to do.
It's highly unlikely that sign shops would be using solid bars for anything. They may know of a local supplier though. Call some plastics shops.
Very Nice Design......But you are right a solid block to make it out is going to be very very hard to get. Why dont' you get a sheet of plexi and then cut, sand the edges to the required angles, glue it and place then fasten required plex tube inside, then mount you manifold. My Dad is a whizz with plexi, he could make it if he stayed in the Uk.
Good idea Hellboy. You might be able to make the container out of 1/4" thickness sheets by beveling the edges of the pieces and using solvents. The top piece where the O-ing needs to be would need to be two pieces (one solvent-fused in place with the O-ing groove and threaded holes). That would make this much more affordable.
Righto! Cap'n! When you machine plex it get seriously hot and cracks, so if can get a block to do that, you going to have to get someone who really know his stuff, 'coz when my dad was helping me build my res I saw how much Knowledge you have to have just to brill and tap a hole in plexi. Let us know when you get a real good plexi supplier.
I had thought about making the collector out of flat sections, but these would need to be glued. I was trying to avoid using glue if at all possible, just in case it leaked. I know plexi/acrylic/glass can be sealed pretty well (fish tanks etc), but I have read about cheap plastic reservoirs that have leaked after a while. Hence the thought of a solid block. The place where I got the original manifolds made did a pretty good job. Having seen those blocks on ebay, I had an idea... Get a bit of acrylic tubing cut to length and two blocks with the necessary machining (drill the holes in the tube insitu): After it's sealed, clamp it together with some screwed rod and nuts, then add the ball valves and connectors: After making those designs, I thought about adding secondary nuts to the top of the bottom block. I wish I had a workshop! It would need to be glued/sealed, but the screwed rod and nuts would do a good job of keeping it together. Material cost under £40, what do you think?
The durability of a solvent seal will depend on the smoothness and area of the surface it's applied to.
Gadnabbits man, I just went through your worklogs... the one about the case and the other about cooling... great stuff, indeed. Its fun reading and you have some fun ideas... in particular, hanging your mainboard off the logo... That's an understatement... they're very nice. Your idea with the tube and rods is great. I'm not sure of the sizes you're after for acrylic tubing, but if you're in the States, McMaster Carr has some nice selections of thick walled acrylic tubing... reasonably priced... and threaded stainless steel rods... maybe use threaded rods, but with aluminum tube covers? Maybe tough with those nicely countersunk holes... just thinkin' out loud. Great stuff.
Thanks dutchcedar, after checking out your BaDassumption worklog...just sweet. Wicked imagination and the skills to match! You make me want to have a workshop even more! I'm in the UK and have priced up the parts for the design above - £11.90 for the two blocks, £46 for 2.5metres(!) of 50/40mm (OD/ID) tubing and a few quid for the nuts, screwed rod and glue. Don't know what I would do with the remaining 2.3metres of tubing though! If I got 1/2"BSPP, 1/4"BSPP, M5 taps and a good sander I could make this myself...
should be able to find the tube much cheaper. Us plastics of course only carries in imperial sizes but a 1/2" O.D by 3/8" I.D would be only $.25 a foot. 50mm seems really small for the 45 quid quoted price. At any rate there's probably a manufacturer making metric sizes and if its anything like the acrylc over here. prices should be similar here's the link to Us plastics: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...SPlastic&category_name=21315&product_id=11231
metarinka, I think the price I got for the tubing is pretty good - the tubing is 50mm OD and 40mm ID, meaning a 5mm thick wall. The length is 2.5metres, meaning that the little bit I need would be less that four quid. Just can't think what to make with the remaining surplus!
